A blog dedicated to coverage of rock news, reviews of CD's/DVD's, live gigs and interviews with musicians who have made rock music great!
Coverage of hard rock, classic rock, AOR and popular melodic rock music across the genre.
This blog is the creation of Alun Williams, a Brit now living in Michigan whose previous credits include writing for the following sites:
www.classicrock.about.com
www.classicrockrevisited.com
and www.rocknrolluniverse.com (Now gone)
I hope you enjoy your visit here!

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Monday, October 24, 2011

Brief Update for Monday October 24th, 2011

Hi folks, well, it was a cool family weekend, kicking back with the kids although our boy has gone and picked up a wicked cough / cold thing, that gives him crap every night right now.

Still, hope you all had good weekends?

Firefest is behind everyone now and I've heard many good things about so many of the acts performances, unfortunately I wasn't there to review it and nor did I have someone to report on it for me. Shame. Ah well ...

Without further ado, here's the updates I have for you.

Hope you have a good week folks, Cheers, Al

BEGGARS & THIEVES keep their comeback promise with their new album “We Are the Brokenhearted”

Frontiers Records is excited to announce the release of the anticipated new BEGGARS & THIEVES album entitled'We Are the Brokenhearted' on November 29th in North America and December 2nd in Europe.

Beggars & Thieves debuted on Atlantic Records in 1990 with their self-titled album, a record that was critically acclaimed with the first single appearing in the top 40 Billboard Magazine Album Rock Charts and being added to rotation on over 100 Parallel One AOR radio stations. The change of musical climate, and the advent of grunge, halted the band’s rise to the stardom when their new label Epic Records decided not to release Beggars & Thieves second studio album “Look What You Create”, written and produced in collaboration with Jim Vallance (Aerosmith, Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, Heart, etc.).

In the late 90’s Beggars & Thieves finally independently released “Look What You Create” followed by “The Grey Album” in 1999, before going into hibernation until 2004 when the founding members - singer Louie Merlino and guitarist Ronnie Mancuso - started to play again in the Sin City All-Star’s with guitarist, Brent Muscat (Faster Pussycat) and drummer, Lez Warner (The Cult), opening shows for Tesla, Vince Neil, Ratt, Slaughter, and Skid Row.

“That and the amazing internet support from the European Melodic Rock community pretty much set the stage for reforming Beggars” recalls Ronnie.
Indeed one of the highlights during the last five years was Beggars & Thieves participation at Firefest 2010 in Nottingham, UK. “I don’t think we realized that our music meant so much to so many people. The first time we played Firefest and everybody was singing the lyrics, it just blew Louie and me away” continues Mancuso. “Right from the start we had offers to do another album, but it wasn’t until I partnered up with producer/engineer Kevin Churko while he was producing Ozzy, that I knew by combining our studios and his engineering and mixing skills, we could make an album that competed on the level of anything being released at the time”.

The resulting new album 'We Are The Brokenhearted' promises to firmly position the band on the map for all Hard Rock fans worldwide. In Merlino’s words: "We wanted to make a Pink Floyd'Dark Side of the Moon' or a U2'Joshua Tree' and that is a huge commitment. I’m not saying we achieved it. But that was the level of passion and effort that was put into making 'We Are The Brokenhearted.'

I think the new songs show our potential to be a truly classic band and we both feel strongly that this is the best work we have ever done. We just hope people get the chance and take the time to really listen and absorb this as an album: This is an album designed to be listened to as a whole entity, not in shuffle mode on an iPod."

'We Are The Brokenhearted' proves that great music is timeless. It’s as fresh as it is familiar. Merlino continues: “This isn’t just some guys trying to have a little fun reliving the past. We got a good ten years left, we aren’t messing around, we are deadly serious. We want to compete with the big boys” and with the quality of this album they just might get their chance!

Six years in the making “Undeniable” is the culmination of hard work, blood, sweat and tears. Rewind to 2002: the Melodic Rock community is taken by storm by the debut album of a new band named Mecca. Formed by vocalist Joe Vana, he enlisted, among others, the services of former Toto members David Hungate (bass) and Fergie Frederiksen on vocals and close friend and former Survivor founding member Jim Peterik, who contributed masterfully to the songwriting and production of the album.

“Mecca” created a sonic treasure bringing the energy to drive diamond hard rockers and the finesse to create lush power ballads, all with the texture that, until now, only super-groups such as Journey, Toto or Foreigner could provide. Amazing press responses blessed the album’s release and Joe Vana soon started putting together plans for a follow up album.

Songwriting started in 2005 between Vana and Swedish guitarist Christian Wolff. In 2007 things really took a ground breaking turn with the songwriting masterpieces that Vana wrote with Swedish Producer/Song Writer/Guitarist Tommy Denander. According to Vana“The writing synergy between Tommy and I has been amazing, we think so much alike in terms of melody and space but sounds very different melodically than what we both have done separately, so it truly is a union of ideas...”. The musical direction soon showed that new heights in Melodic Rock music could be reached.

Several problems created bumps in the road, including the death of Vana's longtime friend and co-producer / engineer Bryan Mitchell which made the completion of the recording process extremely slow. Vana continued charging forward, enlisting the talents of session masters such as Pat Mastellotto (King Crimson, Mr Mister), Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson), along with Denander and Wolff. His core band was also created around Rick Vitek on drums, Brian Moritz on keyboards, Wally Hustin on bass, Eric Ragno on keyboards, Mark Alano on guitar and Joe’s ace in the hole....his son Joey on guitars and backing vocals.

Fast forward to 2011. Mecca II“Undeniable” is finally completed and delivered. The results are breathtaking. An album which perfectly melts the outstanding High-Tech AOR approach of Mr. Mister’s “Welcome to the Real World” to the commercial sheer brilliance of Toto’s“The Seventh One”. Oh and... the good news is that Mecca III is underway!

If Mecca I was born to unveil the treasures of the Melodic Rock genre to the unsuspecting public, then Mecca II“Undeniable” sets in stone the gospel of this music with stunning arrangements and unbelievable melodies. Mecca is now here to stay....get converted to their music!!!

John McMurtrie's photographic hardback of life on the road with Iron Maiden, 'On Board Flight 666' has just been published by Orion and is now available from all good UK bookshops.

FYI - The publishers are still working on overseas deals, so if you want to get hold of a copy of this gorgeous book now, we recommend you buy it from Amazon (who will ship internationally) or Play (who ship to Europe).

To celebrate the release of 'On Board Flight 666' we're giving away an exclusive Ed Force One print signed by John McMurtrie, a signed copy of the book and an Iron Maiden goody bag. Just go to www.ironmaiden.com/onboardflight666 to enter!

Yes, Scorpions are coming around again in 2012!

This message from The Scorpions over at their website:

Dear Fans,

the incredible success of our farewell tour is the high octane fuel driving the upcoming "Final Sting Tour" 2012, which takes us around the globe (Europe / USA / Canada / Latin America / Asia). Thanks for all the emotional moments.
We’re currently surfing on a wave of euphoria triggered by your enthusiasm at every concert, wherever we play.Our label, Sony Music, supports this tour with different projects and so there is not only "Scorpions Live in 3D" which appeared these days at Media Markt, but also "Comeblack" a new CD with some of our Classics with the sound of the 21st century and songs from legendary bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones that have inspired us.

The album will be released on November 4th.

Then we’ll be back on the road looking forward to seeing you

Rock on... Your Scorpions

Also don't forget to lookout for 'Get Your Sting and Blackout Live 2011' on CD and Blu-ray 3D.